More than 3,500 people from across Africa and beyond came together in Rwanda’s capital Kigali last week for the Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF), the continent’s largest gathering on agriculture and food systems.
Governments, farmers, businesses, investors, researchers, civil society, and development organizations met to discuss a question that is becoming increasingly urgent: how can we build food systems that nourish people, create jobs, and withstand growing climate and economic shocks?
Welthungerhilfe (WHH) was part of the conversation throughout the week, from the main plenary stage to discussions on water, finance, and nutrition, as well as an Innovation Deal Room where young entrepreneurs pitched their agribusiness ideas directly to potential investors.
The discussions came at a critical moment. Around 309 million people in Africa face hunger, while two in three people, almost 67 percent, cannot afford a healthy diet (SOFI 2026: UN Coordination for Nutrition Action). Climate change is putting further pressure on agriculture and water resources, food prices continue to climb.
So what will it take to move from pledges to progress?
Making healthy food the easy choice
For us at WHH, one answer starts with what ends up on people’s plates.
Speaking during the Forum’s Nutrition and Health plenary, I argued that producing nutritious food is only part of the equation. For healthier local products to succeed, people also need to know them, trust them, be able to find them, and, most of all, be able to afford them.
That means looking beyond agricultural production to the markets, businesses, infrastructure, and consumer choices that determine what ultimately reaches people’s plates. It also means understanding what people value, what fits into their daily lives, and what makes them actually choose a product.
The ambition is simple: food environments where diverse, colorful, and nutritious plates are affordable, accessible, and appealing.
Affordability matters enormously. As FAO Chief Economist Maximo Torero highlighted in Kigali, “When prices rise, purchases of vegetables fall, with poorer households cutting back the most.” That’s because for families trying to eat a healthy diet on a limited budget, fruits and vegetables are a major expense: they make up around 40 percent of the cost of the cheapest healthy food basket.
This is why we need to think beyond simply producing more food. We need to look at where investment goes across the entire food system, and where the biggest constraints to affordable, nutritious food actually lie.
Investing differently
One of the takeaways from Kigali is that achieving this will require us to think differently about investment.
We need investment across the entire food system: water, energy, storage, processing, transportation, markets, and the local businesses that connect farmers with consumers.
These investments can do much more than improve food security. Reliable water can increase agricultural production while creating jobs for the people who install, maintain, and repair irrigation systems. Better processing and storage can reduce food losses while creating opportunities for local businesses. Access to finance can allow farmers and entrepreneurs, particularly women and young people, to turn ideas into viable startups.
From pledges to progress
One message came up repeatedly in Kigali: food systems cannot be changed in silos.
Agriculture connects to health and nutrition. Water connects to climate resilience and jobs. Governments, researchers, businesses, and communities all have a role to play.
But progress is ultimately measured by what changes for people. Does a farmer have a reliable market? Can a young entrepreneur access grants and financial support? Can families find and afford nutritious food?
That is what moving from pledges to progress means.
The forum in Kigali is a starting point.
The real measure of success will be whether the ideas discussed attract investment, whether promising solutions are taken to scale, and whether that translates into better jobs, more resilient communities, and healthier food at prices people can afford.
Former Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn, speaking at one of our events in Kigali, said it well:
“Africa does not lack ideas, entrepreneurs or innovation. Our task is to find solutions that work, invest in them, and take them to scale so nutritious vegetables become affordable to millions more people.”
